Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

FBI E-mail Investigation Clears Clinton Again; Clinton Blitzing Battlegrounds on Last Day; Former Attorney General Janet Reno Dies; Clinton, Trump Blitz Battlegrounds On Last Day; Early Voting Surges Among Latinos. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 07, 2016 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:05:41] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's the big day. Thanks so much. Have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. Thanks so much for joining me from our nation's capital where it is one gorgeous day on this eve of the election. I'm Carol Costello, counting down to history.

We are now just one day away from Americans choosing their next president, and the campaigns are in high gear today.

Hillary Clinton, Tim Kaine, and their star surrogates are fanning out across the battleground states, where the election could be won or lost in the final hours. Donald Trump barnstorming five states today as running mate, Mike Pence, hits four. Trump's children also on the trail.

All of this after a major jolt to the race. FBI Director James Comey clears Clinton of any criminal wrongdoing in her handling of e-mails.

We are covering both the campaigns and all of the angles for you. But let's begin with the FBI investigation and CNN Justice Correspondent Pamela Brown. Good morning.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. The surprise letter from FBI Director James Comey to Congress Sunday was the culmination of a fast-paced review of the large volume of newly surfaced e-mails.

As one officials told me, agents worked around the clock. And key to the effort was software that have been refined from its previous use, for the initial private service investigation. It turns out most of the e-mails were personal or duplicate e-mails that had already been reviewed by the FBI.

Director Comey was briefed on findings yesterday, we're told, and made the decision he would not change his July recommendation of no charges against Hillary Clinton. So the probe is considered over for now, in regards to Clinton, though it always possible something else could turn up that would require more review.

Now, as for the others who were part of the probe, including Huma Abedin, the FBI is still working on some remaining aspects of the review, including determining how the e-mails ended up on her estranged husband's laptop in the first place. Abedin's attorney said she doesn't know why these e-mails were there because this wasn't a computer that she used.

But this morning, Carol, questions continue to surround Director Comey, including why he made the decision to alert Congress with less than two weeks until the election before understanding the substance of these e-mails. No matter who wins the election tomorrow, you can bet Comey will be in a tough spot. Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, yes. Pamela Brown reporting live for us from Washington. Thank you.

Soon Clinton will be leaving for her final day on the trail. She is kicking things off in Pittsburgh, the first of four stops in three different states today. CNN's Phil Mattingly is covering the Clinton campaign. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Carol. And you look at that map and you get a really good sense of where the Clinton campaign wants to drive home their final message.

And, Carol, I don't think it's going to be a shock, what I tell you, talking about the FBI, talking about Hillary Clinton's private e-mail server, that's not exactly the message they want to be going with in this final 48 hours of the campaign.

They want to be talking about Donald Trump. They want to be making this campaign a referendum on Donald Trump, but that doesn't mean they're not still very frustrated about what happened over the course of the last 10 days. Take a listen to how Hillary Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, put it on CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBBY MOOK, HILLARY CLINTON'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: It's strange that Director Comey would've put out this letter previously saying that he had some information. I don't know why he couldn't have just gotten the warrant and looked at it, and we never would have had to go through all of this.

But that's behind us now, and we have a final day left. Donald Trump is distressed. He's lost his closing message here which was fundamentally negative. We're just going to focused on celebrating the record turnout that we are seeing and getting our positive message out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And, Carol, one key thing that Robby just said, talking about record turnout. How does that happen? That happens in a number of different ways, especially when you look at the huge early vote we've seen in a number of states.

But for the Clinton campaign, that means getting out the vote. And that means the operation that they've touted over and over again over the course of the last couple of months, their field operation, their volunteers, their canvassers, hitting into overdrive over the course of this weekend.

Look at some of these numbers that a Clinton adviser passed our way. Their team has knocked on more than 6 million doors. In battleground states alone, over the course of the weekend, called more than 8.1 million voters. And you put it all together.

Since September, the campaign has contacted more than 45 million voters in battleground states. If you want to talk about how you win close elections, if you look over the course of the last couple of cycles, Carol, that's how you do it. That's why the Clinton campaign is confident.

[09:05:02] But as you at the map that you laid out, where all the surrogates are going, there's no question about it. This campaign has tightened, this election is very close, and the Clinton campaign, while they feel good about where they are, will openly acknowledge that they still have work to do over the course of these last two days. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Phil Mattingly reporting live for us this morning. Donald Trump will make five campaign stops of his own today in five different states. Sunlen Serfaty joins me now with that. Hi, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Well, one thing we likely will hear from Donald Trump today as he campaigns across the country is on the FBI's conclusion to essentially clear Hillary Clinton of any wrongdoing. And you recall, it was just about a week ago where Donald Trump himself was praising the FBI Director for opening up the review of the e-mails, but now he is singing such a different tune out on the campaign trail.

He is now saying the decision is proof that the system is rigged, and he is casting into doubt the conclusions reached by the FBI Director. At one point last night, he said, how can they possibly go through 650,000 e-mails in one week? Here is Donald Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, blasting the FBI's decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, DONALD TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Why reopen the investigation if there is no there there? I mean, that is something that both sides were asking. And, frankly, the investigation has been a hot mess from the beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: Now, as Donald Trump hits the campaign trail today, it is another frenetic day of campaigning as he tries to cobble together the pieces to get to 270 electoral votes needed. He starts today in Florida, then hits on North Carolina, two very important states, must- win states, for him.

Then he goes to Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and a last stop in Michigan. This is a state, Carol, that Republicans have not won since 1988. But certainly, the Trump campaign in these final days are really sensing some opportunity as Hillary Clinton plays defense there. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sunlen Serfaty reporting live for us this morning. So one of the big questions, Comey clears Clinton again. But you heard someone say it, Mr. Trump is insisting Clinton remains under criminal investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a rigged system. Hillary Clinton is guilty. She knows it, the FBI knows it, the people -- the FBI, they know it. I think it's very embarrassing to them. And now, it's up to the American people to deliver their justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. With me now to talk about this, Kenneth Springer, a former FBI special agent; Rebecca Berg, national political reporter for "Real Clear Politics"; and Paul Singer, Washington correspondent for "USA Today." Welcome to all of you.

PAUL SINGER, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, USA TODAY: Thank you.

KENNETH SPRINGER, FORMER SPECIAL AGENT, FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Kenneth, I do want to start with you. You were an FBI special agent. To clarify for voters, is Director Comey's investigation into Hillary Clinton's e-mails over?

SPRINGER: I understand why Director Comey came out with the letter yesterday. I think it was to be truly transparent and to be apolitical. Now, his letter was very careful in what he said. He said they reviewed Hillary's e-mails during the time she was Secretary of State, only that. And also to see if there were any classified.

I think there were a lot of things that were still left open, so he didn't close the door on everything. He just made a decision based on any e-mails to and from Hillary during the time she was Secretary of State.

COSTELLO: OK. You heard Kellyanne Conway say that this investigation, from the beginning, has been, quote, "a hot mess." Has it been a hot mess?

SPRINGER: I think it is an important issue and, you know, it stemmed back from back in July when Director Comey made the statement saying that they weren't going to charge Hillary at the time. I think he did that in part because President Clinton had met with Attorney General Lynch, and he had to think outside the box and make that decision. And then he subsequently appeared before Congress, he said if he came up with anything substantive, he'd get back to them.

He did that. And then he just showed who is more transparent just yesterday in releasing a letter saying that -- according to, you know, his letter -- they didn't find anything based on when she was Secretary of State, that there weren't any classified documents to look further. And now we heard this --

COSTELLO: Because really, this investigation hinges on intent. Did Hillary Clinton intend to mishandle classified information? And FBI Director Comey made that clear, there was no intent here so he couldn't send it on to prosecutors.

I want to turn to my panel of reporters now because Newt Gingrich, Rebecca, said that Mr. Comey caved because of political pressure. Is there any evidence of that?

REBECCA BERG, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: There is no evidence of that. And it's a convenient political talking point for Republicans who, obviously, want to keep this alive through Election Day and even beyond that if Hillary Clinton is elected, but there is no evidence of that.

[09:10:03] And, actually, if you hear people describe James Comey and his style, he really is described by people as having this sort of unimpeachable moral compass. And he might have acted actually to his detriment with this feeling of obligation, that he needed to keep the public informed as much as he possibly could.

COSTELLO: OK. On that note, then, Paul, shouldn't Director Comey come out and talk with the American people and explain what is happening? Because I think a lot of voters are confused.

SINGER: You know, it's difficult for law enforcement to come out and describe any of this stuff in detail. And this is always the case in any investigation. The fact that Comey came out at all, in two occasions now, is kind of surprising for those who watch these investigations go forward. Frequently, they say nothing at all and the investigation sort of like percolates along or fades out on its own.

I think Rebecca is right, that Comey did something remarkable in sort of trying to say to the American people, here is where this stands. The problem is, he had to say, in both occasions, here is where this stands and you kind of have to take my word for it. And that is the problem, is that he can never just sort of open the box and show everything he is looking at.

COSTELLO: Yes. Because, Kenneth, this time around, it seems like Director Comey said, yes, we found these e-mails on Anthony Weiner's laptop, right? And we're going to investigate them, and we're going to do this quickly as possible. But, oh, never mind, there's nothing there.

So does he have an obligation to come forward and talk with the American people and say what is up with that?

SPRINGER: Well, you know, I think he is doing his job. For years, the FBI has long been partitioned, dating back to when J. Edgar Hoover started in '24. He got rid of the political appointees. They're trying to be apolitical. But because of the circumstances, he felt compelled to do this. And I think he's got a history of doing what is right. And I think in this instance, he did. He made some hard decisions and brave decisions because, you know, his career is hanging in the balance.

COSTELLO: But, Kenneth, there are two lawmakers out there -- one Democrat, one Republican -- saying he ought to step down over this.

SPRINGER: People, two weeks ago, were happy he said something, and now they are upset with him. I stand by, I think he did what is right. I've spoken to many former FBI agents and they said, you know, he is honest, he's got character, and he does what is right. And he's got a track record of doing that. He is in a difficult position, and unprecedented is truly the word.

COSTELLO: OK. So I'm just going to pose a simple question for you. Should the American people have faith in the FBI Director? Because, as you know, Rebecca, there are many leaks coming from within the FBI that turned out not to be true. Fox News ran with one that turned out to be totally false. So does Director Comey have hold of his own organization?

BERG: It's not clear at this stage. And I honestly think, Carol, that this is going will be one of the great challenges moving forward for the next President and for next Congress, trying to restore public confidence in institutions broadly, including the FBI, including the DOJ, including the election process overall.

The public has really watched as every public institution in this election has come under fire. And I think, you look at the polling on this, and public confidence is at all-time lows when it comes to the government. And so, really, it is a question of will there be this bipartisan commitment, moving forward, to try to restore the public's faith in the institutions? It is not really clear to me at this stage that there will be. But I think there is and then --

COSTELLO: But you know what I can see for the future, Paul, I can see lots and lots of Congressional hearings.

SINGER: Oh, totally, as long as the Republicans continue to control the House. If there's a Democratic President, they all have lots of fun investigating the President. I think this is why you don't fire the FBI Director because that would sort of suggest that the whole was political. So whoever the next President is should stand by this Director and say, we're going to move forward with an institution we trust. And we're not going to worry about what happened during the election cycle.

COSTELLO: All right. Good answer.

SINGER: We'll see if it works.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Yes, exactly. The conversation continues. Thanks to all of you for being with me this morning. A bit of sad news. No, actually, it is sad news to pass along. The nation's first female Attorney General, Janet Reno, has died.

Reno served under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001 overseeing several tense episodes, including the standoff at Lake of Texas and the saga of Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban refugee. She also authorized the investigation into Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinski.

Reno died at the age of 78, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM. Breaking records. Early voters lining up for hours, and Donald Trump ramping up rigged claims. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:22] COSTELLO: It looks like you can't use weather as an excuse not to vote tomorrow. A lot of sunshine on the map. Voters in south central states might have to dodge a little bit of rain, but not much.

One thing is for sure, nothing stopped a lot of voters from getting to the polls over the weekend. Thousands of people waiting for hours outside. Many places staying open late to accommodate everyone in line. A move not sitting well with Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is a rigged system and be careful with the voting. Be careful with everything, you watch everything, folks, because we are going to win. We don't want it taken away from us. We don't want it taken away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now to talk about this, Kayleigh McEnany, CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter, and Jennifer Granholm, former Michigan governor and senior adviser of Correct The Record and Hillary Clinton supporter. Welcome. Very exciting.

We are in this beautiful setting. I can't wait. I think the long lines when you see long lines of people waiting to vote it is always a great thing.

[09:20:07]JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CLINTON SUPPORTER: It is totally great. I was just talking with David Pepper, who is the executive director of the Ohio Democratic Party. He was saying that the lines in Ohio were so long. They had all of this entertainment out. People were having a great time. People were passing out their barbecue, people turned it into a festive --

COSTELLO: That's what America is about.

GRANHOLM: It is. It's great.

COSTELLO: Exactly. On that note, why is Donald Trump criticizing elections officials for keeping the polling places open to accommodate all of those people who are waiting in lines, some up to two hours to get to vote?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I think he had heard that some polling locations had remained open and others had not so he was concern. You are absolutely right that you have a legal right if you show up at the poll by 7:00 p.m. or whatever time the poll closes, you have a right to vote no matter how long the line is.

So I think he just wants to ensure everything is fair, everything is cozier. Much like the Democrats want to assure there is no voter suppression in states like North Carolina. So I think there is concern on both sides. The stakes are very high.

GRANHOLM: If you are in line before the time of the polls closing even if the line goes for another two hours you have the right to vote.

COSTELLO: That's right.

GRANHOLM: So stay in line, be patient, block it out.

COSTELLO: Pack your patience.

GRANHOLM: Bring your games, whatever it is.

COSTELLO: I do want to get more into what Mr. Trump said about those line. He said specifically be careful with the voting. We don't want it taken away from us. What does he mean by that, Kayleigh?

MCENANY: I think he wants to make sure that everyone who shows up first of all is registered to vote, is not showing up to vote in place of someone who -- we know there are 4 million dead voters on the voting rolls. That's from Jay Christian Adams who --

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: There are issues with this. I hear in Florida -- that I'm a Florida voter on the radio, they say that there are instances of people filling out ballots and sending them in. He wants people on guard and be alert. I don't think there's -- I don't have a problem with that.

COSTELLO: What do you think Mr. Trump means by that?

GRANHOLM: I think he is setting up the argument that the election is rigged. So that when he loses and I believe he will lose, he will end up delegitimizing the outcome of the election and that would be a total travesty, a very anti-democratic travesty.

I worry that that would be taken on into the Congress. That there would be efforts to try to impeach Hillary Clinton, Bill Maher on Friday night called it a slow coup.

If that is the setup to some kind of slow coup where they use the instrumentalities of democracy like Congress to delegitimize the president that would be a travesty. I hope that is not what he is doing. MCENANY: I don't think he is. You know, we heard during the debate when he said, I want to wait and see what happened and so much was made of that. But I think that is a completely fair point. I'm sure Al Gore if he would say I am going to fully accept the election results and then we find out it comes down to 400 odd votes in Florida, we know he wouldn't have conceded right there. He just come back --

COSTELLO: He has not said that he will accept the election results.

MCENANY: He wants to see what happens. We've heard from Governor Pence. We've heard from those around him that if it is a clear and concise result and there is nothing to contest, he won't contest it. But if does come down to a few hundred votes, which it certainly could, if it's 269 electoral race, the stakes are high and he's going to ensure --

GRANHOLM: Why wouldn't he say that? Something quirky happens of course I will contest, but of course, I'm going to accept the outcome of democracy. I mean, this is all about us loving this country and the foundations of it. Why wouldn't he say that, of course, he will accept the outcome?

MCENANY: This is where I think people hear different things when they watch debates. I heard I want to wait and see what happens because there could be an event like that. That was the footnote of the statement, but Democrats obviously heard the election is rigged. He is setting the stop in case he losses. So I think it all depends on how you hear it.

GRANHOLM: I think that is a very good point. We all hear things very differently in this election.

COSTELLO: That said, I want to focus on the Hispanic vote because Hispanic voters are driving these long lines in Florida and Nevada. The Hispanic early voting up 103 percent in Florida, 85 percent in Nevada. Up in Georgia 147 percent. Kayleigh, what does that say about Mr. Trump's message to Hispanic voters? Why are they turning out in droves?

MCENANY: I am excited to see the Latino community turning out. I think we he to wait and see how they vote. We don't know that all of these Latino voters have cast their vote for Clinton. In fact, Nate Cohen at the "New York Times" had an article Cuban voters return home to Trump in Florida. We saw a 20 point gain among Cuban voters just in the last month.

COSTELLO: Except there is this Univision poll that says -- they break it down by the descent, right? They say Cuban voters 49 percent Trump, 42 percent Clinton, that's quite unusual.

GRANHOLM: Read the Puerto Rican one.

COSTELLO: Puerto Rican on, 71 percent Clinton, 19 percent Trump.

MCENANY: So we'll see if that poll is accurate. I just think it is premature to say every Hispanic voter, let's drop them in the Hillary bucket because I think there's a lot of diversity among the Latino community and a lot of folks who care about the economy more than they care about immigration.

[09:25:02]COSTELLO: So why do you think so many Hispanics are turning out to vote?

GRANHOLM: Well, it's obviously from day one of his campaign, the absolute one when he talked about Mexicans being rapists or whatever that started a really negative relationship with the Latino community and then his immigration policy building a wall, you name it. We've heard all of these before including capping off with insults of Alicia Machado.

But what's really interesting I think about this early vote number especially with Latinos and African-Americans is that the Clinton campaign targeted sporadic voters or first-time voters in this early vote numbers.

So what you are seeing is for everyone out of every three Latino voters is a sporadic voter, which is very exciting for people who do this stuff on the ground because that means you don't have to chase the very difficult voter on Election Day. You are getting all of that in early.

Same thing one out of five in Florida one out of five African-American voters is sporadic voter. In Michigan, same thing, we have early absentee vote and 30,000 of the Democratic voters were sporadic voters in that early absentee number. So those are all encouraging signs for the Clinton team.

COSTELLO: We'll see what happens on Election Day, though, right? Kayleigh McEnany, Jennifer Granholm, thanks so much for stopping by.

GRANHOLM: You bet.

WHITFIELD: OK, still to come in the NEWSROOM, what an election to be a first-time voter, right. But has this race turned them off or rev them up? We will talk to some first-time voters, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)